SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
Billionaire brothers David and Simon Rueben co-owners of Arena Racing UK, have featured as the highest placed Brits in the 2015 Sunday Times Rich List. The Sunday newspaper estimates the brothers to be worth a combined £9.7 billion.
The Rueben brothers are reported to have earned an additional £700 million in 2014, through diverse investments in property, digital services and financial investments.
The UK gambling community welcomed two new billionaire members, as PokerStars former co-founder Mark Sheinberg entered the Rich List with £2.75 billion having sold the company to Amaya Gaming in 2014. Israeli Teddy Sagi (valued at £2.5 billion) founder of igaming technology developer Playtech was the other new gambling tycoon to enter the UK Rich List in 2015.
The Sunday Times reported that Stoke based online gambling family the Coates (Denise, John and Peter) had seen an increase of £1 billion in their wealth to £2.35 billion making them the fifth biggest climbers on the list (78-44).
The Coates family lead the list of wealthiest UK gambling tycoons ahead of Betfred brothers Fred and Peter Done who are valued at £1 billion. Other UK gambling figureheads to feature on the Sunday Times list include new Bet Victor owner Michael Tabor (£600 million) and Betfair founders Ed Wray and Andrew Black with £200 and £130 million in respective wealth.
The newspaper further detailed the estimated wealth or Irelands richest, with former Betdaq founder Dermot Desmond valued at £1.4 billion placing him as the country’s fifth wealthiest person. David Power of Paddy Power joined Desmond on the Irish list with an estimated wealth of £250 million.
